Sooners' second-half scoring boom dooms Iowa State

Nov. 16, 2013

Oklahoma's Jalen Saunders (8) finds the end zone on a 91-yard punt return late in the first half Saturday against Iowa State. / AP Photo/Alonzo Adams

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NORMAN, Okla. -- And now, as quick as it takes an Oklahoma football player to sprint nearly the length of the field, that Iowa State victory against Kansas next week isn’t as much a sure thing as some fans hoped.

Two scores Saturday took care of that, the Cyclones’ 48-10 loss against 22nd-ranked Oklahoma, and the Jayhawks’ 31-19 win against West Virginia, and now the situations are reversed.

Iowa State, not Kansas, has the longest active losing streak against Big 12 Conference competition, which grew to seven at Oklahoma’s Memorial Stadium, while the Jayhawks finally broke through after losing 27 straight against their league partners.

“We’re oh-for-the-Big 12,” coach Paul Rhoads said while talking about how many close games his teams have lost.

This one, however, wasn’t one of them as the Cyclones’ record fell to 1-9 with their 15th loss in a row against the Sooners.

Once Oklahoma returned a punt 91 yards for a touchdown late in the first half — this one was over.

Although it sent the teams into the locker room tied at 10, this one was turning Cyclone sour quickly. Rhoads even noticed it to the extent that he addressed his team on the field before it entered the halftime locker room.

“They were downtrodden in their faces,” Rhoads said. “You’re 1-8 and you’re playing a top-25 team off their feet with great success — then all of a sudden something like that goes so wrong.”

This Rhoads speech didn’t work — to the tune of a 38-0 second-half whipping before a crowd that was smaller than the announced 84,776.

“I wanted to make sure we were relaxed, let it go, stay energized, stay up-beat and play the style of football that we played for the first 29 minutes in the first half,” Rhoads continued.

“They made every conscious effort to get past it, then the second play from scrimmage, you get ripped for a touchdown, and now it gets even harder to fight through it — and we didn’t.”

Jalen Saunders’ punt return happened with 1:09 left in the first half. Less than 2 game minutes later, Damien Williams turned Oklahoma’s second play of the second half into a 69-yard dash to the end zone.

Suddenly, the team that was seven points up against a team it hadn’t defeated since 1990 was a touchdown down. Suddenly, a blowout was developing.

“They got us in space,” Rhoads said. “They have better athletes against our guys in space, and really made us pay for it.”

Primarily, that was sub quarterback Trevor Knight, who led the Sooners’ second-half Cyclone demolition with 95 rushing yards.

“Shame on us for knocking (starter) Blake Bell out of the game, because (Knight) made us pay,” Rhoads said.

He wasn’t alone. Iowa State had just 15 rushing yards during the second half. The Cyclones had just 93 total yards after the punt return.

Oklahoma, meanwhile, did what it wanted against a team that’s getting close to being the school’s first one-win football team in a season since 1-10 in 1997.

“It was a tight, obviously tough first half and a 10-10 game,” said Sooners coach Bob Stoops, who tied Barry Switzer as the school’s all-time wins leader with 157. “Jalen really ignited us with that that huge return.

“Fortunately, we made some positive adjustments at halftime.”

Iowa State didn’t — again — and the demise started with a punt that some Cyclones thought Saunders was going to fair catch.

“I think that was part of the issue,” said Justin Coleman, a member of Iowa State’s punt return team. “When I was running down, I saw everyone standing around. I assumed ... that he had fair caught it.

“That definitely changed our attitude about the game. That definitely made a change.

“If we would have scored instead of having to punt, that would have been a big change, too.”

And now it’s Kansas — and then the West Virginia team that Kansas beat.

“What’s it mean?” Aaron Wimberly responded when a reporter mentioned the Kansas victory, about which he said he already knew.